Now here was a title that looked interesting, and for the low low price of free, how could I not put it in the backlog at least. But when the dice called it up, I gave it a closer look and found the game's reputation to be lacking. So I came in expecting some jank... and jank I got! But not nearly as bad as I expected. Step inside.
Story: Forget having a rough day or week... it's been a pretty rough life for you. As an orphan, you've spent your life alone on the streets. But then you think your luck just might be changing as a man invites you inside his house... but we all know life is never that kind and it isn't long before weird things start happening within these walls. It also isn't long till your ability to leave is removed as the door is locked behind you.
From this basic and admittedly cliché starting point you will take a short trip through the horrors you are stuck inside this house with. There is honestly really not a lot going on here: basically enough to give you a few basic choices to make and a reason to be there.
5/10
Graphics: This is not a very pretty game, I have to be honest. The world itself looks fine enough as you wander a small medieval style home. Lighting even looks good, but the characters you inhabit it with are fairly deformed for the most part and the man who invited you in just looks creepy. I understand that was the point, but the tech-work is as much to blame for this as the detail... it just looks rough.
5/10
Sound: Do not expect a good soundtrack to this game either. In fact outside of the start and finish, you would be best to assume there is just about no music at all because most of the time, there isn't. Expect the game to be dead silent most of the time where the only sounds are your own footsteps, only interrupting this with a little bit of voice work at the beginning and a touch of music during the opening scroll text and moments of tension. This is just a very quiet game.
And that voice acting is not all that good either. It's stilted and clearly done by the devs themselves, but concidering the nature of the game, this may also be intentional to add to the creepyness to the man who invited you into his house/
6/10
Gameplay: Short sweet and to the point, you won't be spending a lot of time in the Alchemist's House... but the time you spend will be in a first person game where between the things said to you and your height suggest to me that you are but a child. There are a handful of objectives you will have to meet, most of which will be spelled out very well for you but the flow of the game is very good and while the game does not offer a lot to the player, it's offerings are not bad! Just do not plan your afternoon around this game as even if you mess up every chance you get, you will be lucky to get an hour out of the game before you are done.
Yes, this is a VERY brief experience and not a difficult one either. Your adventure will be pretty linear and the few choices you get to make will be obvious once you mess up, but it still might be worth doing so intentionally to see some of the potential fates the devs had waiting for you.
The only complaint I have with the game is the inventory system. There really isn't much of an inventory to worry about, but the user interface about it isn't exactly clear about if you have an item selected or not off hand. You will need to spend a little time to understand this before you will be allowed to finish the game.
6/10
Bugs: No issues with how the game ran that I could tell. At best I saw one shadow that jumping messed with if it appeared or not, but that's literally the ONLY thing I could find that was not 100% working perfectly.
Score: I can not in all good conscience say his is a good game. It isn't. It's incredibly short with incredibly little to do or see before you reach the ending. But what is here is not terrible either. Rather this game wears what it is on it's sleeve: a home-made game that was made for the fun of it, and that shows through. For a free game, you could do far worse then this.
6/10
System Requirements:
- 2.0 Ghz Dual Core processor
- 4 GB RAM
- Intel UHD 620 graphics
- 4 GB hard drive space
- 64-bit version of Windows 7, 8, or 10
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
Source: Steam
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